People and Misconceptions

Many peoples believes that inmates are generally gang members or individuals whom grew up in poor neighborhoods. For 99.9% of peoples, their first imaginary impression of the word “inmate” will reflect the big, strong, muscular, tattooed, big beard, battered with scars persona depicted in many Hollywood movies. But the truth is that there’re many big celebrity stars, peoples in very high places, middle class citizens and even police officers going to prison or jail everyday.

In 2009, Rapper Lil Wayne (real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr.) received a 1 year sentence to Rikers Island for gun possession while on tour.  While in jail, he got caught listening to music using a watch/MP3 player. This was not a severe offence but the prison board decided that he must spent the rest of his 30 days in solitary confinement. He should be released in November 2010.

Sean Penn, the ex husband of Madonna, received a 33 days sentence in 1987 for hitting a paparazzi. This incident was not the only one involving confrontations with photographers. It’s been reported that the car accident death of Princess Diana was the result of paparazzi in pursuit.

Lindsay Lohan was sentenced to 90 days in jail because she decided to drive while drunk. After she was released, she had to be enrolled in a program for alcohol awareness abuse for a period of 90 days.

Paris Hilton was sentenced to 23 days behind bars because she irresponsibly drove without a license. Once released, she promised the world that she will change and become a better person. She was recently sent to jail because she got caught with drugs in Las Vegas.

Before his big landing role in Ironman and Ironman 2, between the years of 1996-2001, US actor Robert Downey Jr. served 18 months in jail for drug abuse. This mistake cost him the part in Ally McBeal

 

In January 2008 the star of the TV series “Lost”, Michelle Rodriguez served 17 days in jail for a probation violation. A year later she was arrested again for drunk driving and breaking her probation. None the less, her career did not get affected has she was able to secure a great role in the record breaking movie "Avatar".

In August 2007, Nicole Richie the star of “The Simple Life” was supposed to served 4 days in jail but instead only served 82 minutes due to jail overcrowding.


 

In 2007 the star of the TV series “24”, Kiefer Sutherland, was sentenced 48 days in jail for driving under the influence.

In 1989, actress Zsa Zsa Gabor received 3 days in jail for assaulting a police officer.

We all have to work to make a living. Our work contributions is the back bone of today's economy and it's future. At least once in our lives, we all secretly wish to become boss or CEO of the company we work for or one day acquire our own. We look at our boss and CEO with envy, respect, admiration and as a perfect individual with money and power. But once in a while, all the smoke, mirrors and curtains disappears and what was once a reality reveal itself to be quite shocking and disturbing. Who once seem to be a perfect individual behind the custom made suit, private office with his name on the door, Italian shoes, private limousine driver and picture on the cover of Fortune 500, has been revealed as a con artist and created the most media covered scandals in the world's history.

Here are some of the most shocking and memorable examples:

ENRON
Kenneth Lee "Ken" Lay was an American businessman, best known for his role in the widely reported corruption scandal that led to the downfall of Enron Corporation. Lay and Enron became synonymous with corporate abuse and accounting fraud when the scandal broke in 2001. Lay was the CEO and chairman of Enron from 1985 until his resignation on January 23, 2002, except for the shallow months in 2000 when he was chairman and Jeffrey Skilling was CEO.


Lay was indicted by a grand jury on 11 counts of security embezzlement and affiliated charges on July 7 2004. On January 31, 2006, following four and a half years of preparation by government prosecutors, Lay's and Skilling's trial began in Houston. Lay was found guilty on May 25, 2006, of 10 counts against him but the judge declined the 11th. Because each count carried at most a five to ten years penalty, legal experts said Lay could have faced 20 to 30 years in prison. He died while vacationing in Snowmass, Colorado on July 5, 2006, about 3 in a half months previous to his booked sentencing on October 23. Preliminary autopsy claims shows that he died of an heart attack caused by coronary artery disease. On October 17 2006, the result of his controversial death, the federal district court judge who presided over the case vacated Lay's conviction. Since then, they've been many conspiracy theories surrounding the way he died.

Martha Stewart
Martha Helen Stewart is an American business magnate, television host, author, and magazine publisher. As the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures such as encompassing publishing, broadcasting and merchandising. Stewart's syndicated talk show (Martha) is broadcasted throughout the world, she has written numerous bestselling books and she is the publisher of Martha Stewart Living magazine.
 
In 2001, Stewart was named the third most powerful woman in America by Ladies Home Journal. In 2004, she was convicted of lying to investigators about a stock sale and served five months in prison. Stewart began a comeback campaign in 2005, with her company returning to profitability in 2006.
 

WorldCom
In 2005 as a result WorldCom's dishonest financial reporting, and subsequent loss of 100 billion US$ to investors, Bernard John "Bernie" Ebbers was found guilty of embezzlement and conspiracy. The WorldCom scandal came to light when the Madoff schemes were dicovered in 2008, resulting in the largest account manipulation scandal in United States of America's history. He is presently serving a 25-year prison sentence at Oakdale Federal Correctional Complex in Louisiana. Portfolio.com and CNBC named Ebbers as the fifth-worst CEO in American history; Time magazine named him the tenth most corrupt CEO of all time.

Conrad Black
Conrad Moffat Black is an expatriate Canadian historian, columnist and publisher who for substantial amount of time owned the third biggest newspaper magnate in the world. In 2007 he was found guilty of fraud in an US justice court and receive a sentence of 6 and a half years behind bars. On July 19 2010 he managed to be granted bail. 2 days later, he was freed from Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Florida USA but a decision is still pending by the court on whether to reopened his 2008 criminal fraud conviction.
 
Before the regulatory investigation that escalated to his sentence, Black headshiped Hollinger International, Inc. Through affiliates, the company published big-name newspapers including The Daily Telegraph (UK), Chicago Sun Times (USA), Jerusalem Post (Israel), National Post (Canada) and hundreds of community newspapers in North America.

COPS GONE MAD!
The Rampart scandal refers to a hugely televised corruption in the Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (better known as CRASH) anti-gang unit of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Rampart Division in the late 1990s. More than 70 cops in the CRASH unit were taking part in corruption, classifying it as one of the biggest and most talked about cases in United States history. The wrongfully convicted offenses include unprovoked shootings, unprovoked beatings, planting of evidence, framing of suspects, stealing and dealing narcotics, bank robbery, perjury, and covering up evidence of these activities.

The story got more intense when 3 Rampart police officers were found to be on the payroll of hip-hop’s ex-ceo of Death Row Records , Marion "Suge" Knight, an ex-convict with ties to the Bloods gang. Adding more fuel to the EAST COAST and WEST COAST beef at the time was that through filed suits and detective testimony, Rampart CRASH officers Nino Durden, Rafael Pérez and David Mack were found possibly responsible for the 1997 murder drive-by shooting of multi platinum-selling rap/hip hop BADBOY recording artist Notorious B.I.G. The Rampart Scandal resulted in more than 140 civil lawsuits against the city of Los Angeles, costing the city an estimated $125 million in settlements.